Burgess Hill

By dw9/4/2016 22:47Sat Apr 9 22:47:56 2016

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I find it hard to believe that today's pitch at Burgess Hill was worse than the one at Earlsmead for our game against Wingate Finchley. Either there must have been some puddles on a few areas of the pitch (possibly near a corner flag?!) with the water unable to drain away due to the recent dry weather or their ground is almost permanently waterlogged, as in that unforgettable season at Claremont Road. Either way, there does appear to be a persistent problem with newly promoted clubs not having even basic drainage (eg. Brentwood, Burgess Hill), yet at the same time Ground Grading issues requiring the selfsame clubs to install a few more seats or bits of cover. Wrong priorities.

Amusing to see a posting on the Burgess Hill forum, claiming they are already safe! - now thankfully corrected. As for Hendon, there is still some nail biting ahead. If only we had finished off the Brentwood home game - in my opinion there were too many substitutions late on when we were playing so well.

Edited by dw at 22:49:36 on 9th April 2016

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Re: Burgess Hill

By John Rogers11/4/2016 12:10Mon Apr 11 12:10:39 2016In response to Burgess HillTop of thread

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It's a difficult one - I think Three Bridges, just up the road, were off as well on Saturday which leads me to suspect that things were particularly wet overnight on Saturday in Mid-Sussex. Unusual for April to have a postponement, but by no means unheard of.

With more and more clubs going down the 3G route, it will be nice for all of these postponements to have much less impact over the coming years. We know better than most that throwing money at drainage doesn't necessarily reap and benefits - I remember the Arbiters spending tens of thousands on drainage at Claremont Road one summer with little improvement gained.

I don't know what Burgess Hill's ground was like Saturday, and I don't imagine it was worse than the one we played on for the Wingate match - however, I imagine that 19 times out of 20 that wouldn't have gone ahead. We got lucky on that day and were treated to a heck of a spectacle as a result.

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